There seems no end to top athletes testing positive for banned substances. Recently, top national and international athletes figured on the list of provisional suspension of the National Anti-Doping Agency.

Though the list is yet to be updated on the website, the names and figures are quite alarming, especially for athletics.And now there are reports that a top athlete, a thrower, joined the list for testing for a substance used for treating infertility.

Yet, if the provisional suspension list is an indication, doping is as believed to be prevalent in top-flight athletics. Top names, considered to be up-and-coming stars including steeplechase runner Mohammed Nur Hasan, have tested positive as per NADA’s provisionally suspended list. The Federation Cup champion impressed all with his run of 8:30.56s last year. National record holder Avinash Sable was the only athlete to have run faster than him. As many as 44 names were added to the provisional suspension list as of April 5, 2024.

As usual, athletics finds itself on top of the provisional suspension list with 16 names. Murali Kumar Gavit, a 2019 Asian Championship silver medallist in 10,000m, is another big fish in the doping net. Other names include World Cross Country Championships participants Hemraj Gurjar and Anjali Kumari. Weightlifting is the next with 13 defaults. Long distance runner from Tamil Nadu, G Lakshmanan, was suspended for two years post Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) hearing. Sprinter Himani Chandel was handed a four-year ban.

What seems more worrying is the positive cases among minors. There are about 17 minors out of which 14 of them had taken the Case Resolution Agreement route for a three-year suspension. As pointed out in these columns, minors usually do not take banned substances on their own. Onus should be on the parents and coaches to keep them clean and when they test positive, they should be questioned as well.